He picks his words much more carefully now. Gone are the days when he’d smile at a reporter and say, ‘I’m leaving if I’m going to be a top-5 pick,’ or ‘It’s always been my dream to play in the NBA.’

Once capricious with his word choice, Carmelo Anthony — the SU basketball team’s epicenter — now speaks about his future in vanilla phrases. His mind? ‘It’s on the present.’ His thoughts? ‘On this season, not next.’

It seems like a natural — perhaps even necessary — change for a college freshman that knows his words will be plastered all over the morning papers and regurgitated on newscasts. But those closest to Anthony — a likely lottery pick if he chooses to declare for next year’s NBA Draft — say he’s changed more than his verbiage. He’s changed his thought process, too.

‘He’s gotten better about thinking about the present,’ said Troy Frazier, Anthony’s close friend and mentor. ‘It’s tempting for him to look ahead at all the possibilities. He used to fall into that a little bit. He’s matured to the point where he only thinks about right now.’

Good thing. Because if Anthony did peek to the future, he’d see that a circus surrounds him. Often, 10 or 15 scouts attend Syracuse games, mostly to watch Anthony’s every stutter-step. Some people close to agents have started calling Anthony’s friends and relatives, hoping to sway the superstar.

He’s been featured in Sports Illustrated and during a halftime show on CBS. Big East players muse about his NBA future, certain he’ll leave after one year. Frazier has decided he’ll live with Anthony when he plays pro. Anthony’s mother ponders where she will or won’t live, because she wants to stay close to family in New York.

‘If you start to think about all the stuff going on, it gets a little scary,’ said SU assistant coach Troy Weaver, who recruited Anthony. ‘He’s not doing that. Really, he’s done an amazing job keeping his mind at Syracuse and on the season.’

Much of that is thanks to Weaver, Frazier and a few others, who’ve created a close-knit cocoon for Anthony where future plans aren’t considered. Syracuse teammates say they don’t talk to Anthony about the NBA, only the next college opponent. Weaver tells him to block out scouts who sit courtside, to forget they’re even there.

Once or twice, Anthony’s called Frazier — who attends almost every Syracuse game, home or away — to ask what scouts and agents might think about his basketball future.

‘I don’t care what they’re thinking,’ Frazier told him. ‘And neither should you.’

‘When you’ve got all that commotion around you, it’s important you don’t see what’s going on,’ Pearl Washington, a former SU star, said before the season. ‘(Anthony) will have to ignore it or block it out. That’s the only way you’ll get through the year.’

So Anthony’s essentially stopped answering the phone in his South Campus apartment. He won’t pick up his cell phone unless he knows who’s calling. His friends say he goes out less, choosing to spend more time with those he trusts.

‘Everything else keeps moving and changing,’ said Steve Smith, his high school coach. ‘And he’s still thinking and feeling the same.’

He still loves the school, smiles big and generally revels in the Syracuse spotlight.

He still hates the weather and sometimes finds himself a little down when the campus is covered with snow and it’s too cold to go out. His friends say he calls home more often when the weather’s bad. And Frazier says, ‘the only time he thinks twice about his decision to go to college before the NBA is when it’s a blizzard out.’

‘A lot of stuff might be going on around me,’ Anthony said, ‘but only two things have changed for me: The weather sucks, and we’re playing the Big East schedule.’

The latter has changed Anthony’s basketball life significantly. For the first time since he can remember, he isn’t finding all the answers on the court.

With defenses doubling or tripling him, he’s averaging 16 points through five Big East games. That’s less than teammates Hakim Warrick and Gerry McNamara in league play.

He hasn’t led Syracuse in scoring in the last three games. In fact, he’s only led the Orangemen once in their last seven. On Sunday at Miami, Anthony — who averages 21 points and nine rebounds — scored a mundane 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

‘We keyed a lot of our defensive game plan toward stopping him,’ said Miami assistant coach Greg Gary. ‘Everyone’s doing that now. He’s impossible to guard. He can score inside and outside. The only way he won’t score is if you keep him from touching the ball.

‘Even if he doesn’t touch it, he’ll hurt you. He had 14 rebounds against us. If he doesn’t, we probably win the game. He’s one of the best players in this league. He should go (to the NBA after this year). He’s one of those young guys you can tell is ready.’

Other evaluators don’t seem bothered by the dip in Anthony’s scoring, either.

Said one NBA scout, speaking on a condition of anonymity: ‘You knew (the scoring lull) was going to happen. What’s important is that he’s kept his composure and distributed the ball. He’s very good and very aggressive. Offensively, I don’t see much about his game that needs to be picked apart. In basketball, when you’re the center of attention, you have to adapt.’

When you’re the center of attention in life, you have to adapt, too. So, for now, Anthony speaks more carefully — if not thinks more carefully — and does his best to block out the circus.

‘I’m not worrying about anything that’s going on other than with this team,’ Anthony said. ‘I’ll make a decision when the time comes.’

Published on January 28, 2003 at 12:00 pm